Most VitalSource eBooks are available in a reflowable EPUB format which allows you to resize text to suit you and enables other accessibility features. Where the content of the eBook requires a specific layout, or contains maths or other special characters, the eBook will be available in PDF (PBK) format, which cannot be reflowed. For both formats the functionality available will depend on how you access the ebook (via Bookshelf Online in your browser or via the Bookshelf app on your PC or mobile device).

Book Description

Of the many conceptual distinctions present in psychology today, the approach-avoidance distinction stands out as one of, if not the, most fundamental and basic. The distinction between approach and avoidance motivation has a venerable history, not only within but beyond scientific psychology, and the deep utility of this distinction is clearly evident across theoretical traditions, disciplines, and content areas. This volume is designed to illustrate and highlight the central importance of this distinction, to serve as a one-stop resource for scholars working in this area, and to facilitate integration among researchers and theorists with an explicit or implicit interest in approach and avoidance motivation.

The main body of this volume is organized according to seven broad sections that represent core areas of interest in the study of approach and avoidance motivation, including neurophysiology and neurobiology, and evaluative processes. Each section contains a minimum of four chapters that cover a specific aspect of approach and avoidance motivation. The broad applicability of the approach-avoidance distinction makes this Handbook an essential resource for researchers, theorists, and students of social psychology and related disciplines.

Reviews

'Elliot's Handbook is the A to Z of approach and avoidance. The list of authors reads like a 'who's who' of the very best leaders in psychology and neuroscience today. The topics include brain mechanisms of fear and desire, basic elements of emotion and personality, evaluation and self-regulation, and social and achievement motives. Everything one could want in an up-to-date analysis of motivation and emotion is here. In short, the Handbook is sure to be required reading for anyone who wants to understand feelings or motives.' -- Kent Berridge, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan, USA

'A clear understanding of the approach-avoidance distinction is as important in setting the scientific course for psychology as determination of the periodic table was for chemistry. This enormously ambitious book, containing work by the leading scholars in the field, is a landmark effort in reaching that goal.' -- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Claremont Graduate University, USA

'Approach and avoidance motivation are central to key issues at all levels in the biobehavioral sciences. This Handbook brings all of these levels together for the first time, and does so in impressive fashion. It is a comprehensive, essential resource for all students of motivation in the social sciences, psychology, and neuroscience.' -- Richard J. Davidson, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA